View full sizeTony Dejak, Associated PressWhen it comes to the excitement of September, the Indians are definitely on the wrong side of the fence.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- September is the best time of the baseball season.

It's the month when tensions grow and divisions are won. The standings, especially with four wild-card teams, seem to change pitch-by-pitch at this time of year.

This is when time actually runs out in a season that is otherwise endless. It hasn't been like this in Cleveland since 2007. Ownership makes it sound like that was yesterday. It wasn't.

Asdrubal Cabrera is the only regular still left from that club. Shin-Soo Choo hardly played in 2007 because of elbow surgery. Among the other holdovers, Grady Sizemore, Rafael Perez and Travis Hafner have spent way too much time on the disabled list to be considered functioning parts of the club. It was so long ago that Roberto Hernandez was known as Fausto Carmona. By either name, his season is probably over with a right ankle injury.

Autopsies and complaints, along with firings and title changes, have filled the void since. Manager Eric Wedge was fired after the 2009 season. Mark Shapiro was moved from general manager to president. Chris Antonetti was moved from assistant general manager to general manager.

Manager Manny Acta is on the hot seat for a collapse as sudden and complete as there has been in team history. One report named Terry Francona, apparently skipping right over heir apparent Sandy Alomar Jr., as a possible replacement for Acta after this season.

Your browser does not support iframes.

One question: why would Francona, who won two World Series with the Red Sox, want to come here? Yes, he and his dad played in Cleveland, and Francona once worked for Shapiro as an advisor, but this team needs a lot of work. Raise your hand if you don't think Francona knows that.

Enough of this dreariness. Let's look to where September baseball is the brightest.

Chicago and Detroit are locked in a tight race in the AL Central. They end their season series Monday with a makeup game. The Tigers have crushed Chicago, 12-5, head-to-head, but have trailed them much of the second half.

The Tigers, who have not matched their preseason expectations, have an easier schedule than Chicago after Monday. They play a three-game series against a good Oakland team before ending their season with 13 games against AL Central non-contenders Minnesota and Kansas City. The White Sox must play the contending Angels and Rays a combined seven times along with the Royals and Indians after Monday.

A word of warning Chicago fans: the Royals are 10-5 against the White Sox.

In the AL East, the Yankees wasted a 10-game lead and are locked in a fight for first place with the Orioles. How shocking is the Orioles' rise? The Indians arrived in Baltimore at the end of June and took three out of four from a team that couldn't pitch or catch the ball.

Only July 1, the Indians beat the third and final left-hander, Brian Matusz, that the Orioles started against them. The Orioles were so bad they couldn't even beat the Indians with a left-handed starter. Since then, the Orioles are 39-27 and the Indians 20-47.

In the AL West, Texas has been in first place since April 9 and gives every indication that it intends to go to the World Series for the third straight year. There is concern about the starting pitching, a great lineup has some dings -- Josh Hamilton (left knee), Adrian Beltre (left shoulder) -- and getting the ball to closer Joe Nathan might be a bit of a problem, but the Rangers are still going to be hard to beat.

Oakland entered the weekend three games back in the AL West, but leading the wild card. The A's rank second in the AL in ERA behind Tampa Bay, another wild card contender. The high-priced Angels are almost out of the running for the West, but still have a chance in the wild card.

In the National League, it's all about the wild card because Washington (NL East), Cincinnati (NL Central) and San Francisco (NL West) have big leads. The Braves have a firm hold on the first wild-card spot, but second spot is a free-for-all.

The Dodgers, who absorbed millions in future salary when they acquired Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford from Boston, are right there with St. Louis. So are the Brewers and Phillies, who dumped talent and salary in late July because they thought they were out of the race.

Those are the kind of stories that haven't been told about the Indians for far too long.

This week in baseball

Baseball is a game of threes. Three strikes and you're out and three outs in each half of an inning. Here are two more sets of threes to consider from last week in baseball.

Three up

1. Tampa Bay's B.J. Upton, who hit three homers Sept. 9 against Texas, has hit 16 of his 23 homers since the All-Star break.

2. Gio Gonzalezbecame the first Washington pitcher to lead the big leagues in wins since General Crowder in 1933 with his 19th victory Monday.

Your browser does not support iframes.

3. Former Indians right-hander Alex White hit the second-longest homer, 423 feet, by a pitcher this season Monday for the Rockies.

Three down

1. Baltimore's playoff chances took a hit when they lost Nick Markakis, .335 (74-for-221), five homers, 28 RBI since the All-Star break, after he had surgery Tuesday to repair his broken left thumb.

2. Texas catcher Geovany Sotohas thrown out just two of 27 base runners attempting to steal.

3. The Phillies have lost 12 games in which they'd led after seven innings, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.

Catchers who hit: Atlanta's Brian McCannand Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, according to the MLB Stat of the Day, are the only two catchers in history to have at least six 20-homer seasons through their age-28 season.

Mr. September: In his past two Septembers, Chris Parmeleeof the Twins is hitting .360 (40-for-111) with seven homers and 23 RBI in 30 games.

Historic lefties: Jon Lester, as pointed out by billy-ball.com, became Boston's all-time strikeout leader for left-handers Tuesday with 1,044 after striking out five Yankees. Babe Ruth is still No.9 with 483. Lester is 84-45, while Ruth was 89-46 before he started hitting home runs.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.